Iowa

Does the city of Long Beach need to spend $16 million on banners, painted logos and "barriers" to hide dangerous-looking buildings (Times, Nov. 4)? Does changing the language we use to refer to downtown Long Beach give the appearance of improvement? This has got to be the most bonehead idea that the City Fathers have ever pursued. Especially when in the same section of the paper was an article titled "Murders Up 25% in L.B. from the same period in '89." Instead of spending $16 million to give the appearance of an interesting and livable city, use the money to improve the police force.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a liberal Democrat and a champion for Americans with disabilities, announced Saturday that he will not run for reelection next year, deciding that 40 years in Congress is enough. Harkin's retirement gives Republicans a chance to pick up a Senate seat during next year's midterm elections. They need to gain six seats to retake control of the Senate. But Sen. Michael Bennet, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Harkin's early announcement gives the party ample time to recruit a strong candidate to run next year.

No. 23 Detroit Lions: OT Riley Reiff, Iowa - Reiff bounced around the line as a freshman, playing at various spots before replacing Bryan Bulaga (a first-round pick of the Packers) at left tackle as a sophomore. Reiff started all 13 games at left tackle as a junior before deciding to turn pro. If there's a knock on him, it's that his arms are a tad shorter than typical for a left tackle. Comment: Reiff is more of a right tackle playing on the left side. But he was good value for the Lions here with many expecting him to go earlier.

Coincidence or not, Ted Cruz's appearances in Iowa this weekend come as Texas' tea party senator and his wife appeared to be trying to humanize the potential 2016 presidential candidate, who is both loved and hated, even among Republicans, for his faux-filibuster and failed government-shutdown strategy. On Friday night, Cruz is scheduled to speak to a crowd of about 600 at the state Republican Party's big Ronald Reagan fundraiser in Des Moines. (The appearance is to be live-streamed at www.desmoinesregister.com )

DUBUQUE, Iowa - President Obama waxed sentimental Saturday night about the closing days of his final campaign for office in an appeal to the voters who put him on the map. Standing under a bright yellow gingko tree as he spoke in a town square here, Obama asked several thousand supporters to help him win Iowa just one more time. “I started my presidential journey right here,” he said. “You know me by now. You may not agree with every decision I've made ... but you know I say what I mean.” Five years ago, Democratic caucus participants gave Obama the first win of the primary season, erasing suspicions that the young senator could give a good speech but wasn't a bona fide contender for the party nomination.

November 27, 2008 | P.J. Huffstutter, Huffstutter is a Times staff writer.

The national fight over same-sex marriage is coming to a peak in Iowa, where the state's highest court will hear arguments next month over whether the state's ban on gay unions is unconstitutional. The debate over the future of Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act, a decade-old law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, comes after a ruling by a lower court judge last year.

An Iowa straw poll that traditionally has served as an early benchmark in the Republican presidential nomination race lost much of its luster Wednesday as first Rudolph W. Giuliani and then John McCain decided not to compete in it. The straw poll, scheduled for Aug. 11, in past campaigns has drawn tens of thousands of Republicans to a state party gathering in Ames, Iowa. But candidates have had to spend large sums of money to transport supporters to cast ballots at the gathering.

After a pause for Christmas, presidential contenders resume their blitz across Iowa today, scraping and scuffling in contests that have grown tighter and more unpredictable as the first balloting of 2008 nears. On the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina are running neck and neck and neck, with the rest of the field fighting to squeeze past one of them to finish third.

Kelly Goodwin sifted through the rubble of what used to be her kitchen, dazed after a tornado ripped through the area Friday and left this eastern Iowa town in disarray. Just hours earlier, she was spending an uneventful afternoon in her home when she heard the wind howl outside. She glanced out the window, saw a tree rip from the ground and hurried to the basement. "When I came back up I saw all this," she said, waving her arms at the wreckage.

It was a stirring sight in World War II: the biggest U.S. battleship ever built passing slowly beneath the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific, bound for battle. On Saturday, thousands witnessed the same historic passage as the Iowa was towed from San Francisco Bay on one last mission - a journey to Southern California and its permanent home as a floating museum on the San Pedro waterfront. The 45,000-ton warship, a fixture in the U.S. mothball fleet for years, was to start its voyage May 20, but weather-wary planners delayed the trip because of predicted storms.